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Summary: Under Rule 8.3, Comment 3, a lawyer "has knowledge of a violation [requiring reporting to Bar Counsel] when the lawyer possesses supporting evidence such that a reasonable lawyer under the circumstances would form a firm opinion that the conduct in question had more likely occurred than not."

Rule 8.3's requirement to report misconduct to Bar Counsel's Office is triggered by a lawyer's discovery (in litigation involving breakup of a law firm) of a document indicating that an attorney, a former partner of the client and an opposing party in the litigation, intentionally omitted mentioning a conviction for fraud in his letter recommending an applicant for admission to the bar. The discovered document may constitute client's "confidential information," as newly defined in Comment 3A to Rule 1.6. If so, the reporting requirement would be excused unless client consents to a report. Lawyer also needs to advise his client, who is a lawyer, about the latter's own reporting obligation under Rule 8.3(a).

Summary: Where no personal representative or other fiduciary of an estate has been appointed, a lawyer may not, in the absence of a court order or the appointment of a personal representative or other fiduciary, release her file concerning the execution of the will of a deceased client to a proponent of the will when a will contest is pending.

Summary: A lawyer asked to represent multiple plaintiffs against the same defendant, whether or not on the same claim, will need to consider and discuss with potential clients whether confidentiality or conflict problems exist before undertaking requested representation. The appropriate response will turn on the factual circumstances of each situation.

Summary: When lawyers change firms and clients move with them, new engagement letters should be executed with the new firms as to hourly matters, and must be executed as to contingent matters, even when no material terms change. A lawyer bears the burden of justifying as fair and reasonable to the client any material change in the terms of the engagement that occurs after a representation commences. As to clients who want the old firm to continue to represent them, that firm's actions must comply with ethical and, where applicable, court rules.

Summary: A lawyer for a party may "friend" an unrepresented adversary in order to obtain information helpful to her representation from the adversary's nonpublic website only when the lawyer has been able to send a message that discloses his or her identity as the party's lawyer.

Summary: The purchase price of the practice of a lawyer taking retirement status pursuant to Rule 4:02 may include a portion of legal fees earned in the future from representation of current and former clients of the retiring lawyer. It may not, however, include a portion of legal fees earned from representation of new clients referred by the retired lawyer.

Summary: The Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct do not prevent a lawyer from representing a client at a municipal planning agency's land use hearing when a member of the lawyer's firm is also a member of the municipality's Board of Zoning Appeals since the BZA has no interest or jurisdiction with respect to the matter.

Summary: Payment by a lawyer to a commercial marketing service only after a prospective client contacts the lawyer upon receiving a proposal for services from the lawyer who has learned of the client's need from the marketing service's website does not violate Rule 7.3(f). Under the operation of the marketing program the payment is for permitted "advertising" rather than prohibited "solicitation."

Summary: The ability of civilian lawyers employed by the Department of the Navy who have been designated for furlough leave for budget purposes to give advice to the Navy on matters relating to furlough policy as well as non-furlough matters is a matter of federal, not Massachusetts, professional responsibility law.

Summary: A lawyer generally may store and synchronize electronic work files containing confidential client information across different platforms and devices using an Internet based storage solution, such as "Google docs," so long as the lawyer undertakes reasonable efforts to ensure that the provider's terms of use and data privacy policies, practices and procedures are compatible with the lawyer's professional obligations, including the obligation to protect confidential client information reflected in Rule 1.6(a). A lawyer remains bound, however, to follow an express instruction from his or her client that the client's confidential information not be stored or transmitted by means of the Internet, and all lawyers should refrain from storing or transmitting particularly sensitive client information by means of the Internet without first obtaining the client's express consent to do so.

Summary: When a suit to recover damages for personal injuries incurred on tribal lands in State X is contemplated, the ethics rules governing a contingent fee agreement between a Massachusetts attorney and her Massachusetts client are those of State X or the tribal court in State X and not the Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct.

Summary: The conduct of an out-of-state attorney who deliberately misrepresented that he was representing a client in order to induce Lawyer's client to settle a matter falls within the requirement of Rule 8.3(a) mandating that Lawyer report the conduct to Bar Counsel of the Board of Bar Overseers. On the facts of this inquiry, however, the Lawyer's information is protected by Rule 1.6, and therefore under Rule 8.3(c) Lawyer needs client consent to make such a report.

Summary: Some information acquired by a lawyer in the course of briefly representing the residuary beneficiary under a will that she drew for the decedent is not protected confidential information because it is "generally known." Other information, not "generally known," is confidential information that may not be revealed. However, the attorney who drew the will has the right to disclose to specific legatees that they are named beneficiaries so that they may take steps to see that the decedent's wishes are carried out. Such disclosure is "implicitly authorized" by Rule 1.6(a) of the Rules of Professional Conduct to carry out the wishes of the decedent, lawyer's former client.